FWN/Beats/Design

Artwork

In this section, we cover the Fedora Artwork Project.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Artwork

Contributing Writer: Nicu Buculei

Fedora Remix Mark

A few weeks ago when the process started, we reported about the request for a secondary trademark design for "Fedora Remix", a process which closed to the decision. On a tread crossed to @fedora-art and @fedora-advisory-board Greg DeKoenigsberg opined[1] for leaving the ultimate decision to the Art team "I don't suppose we could just defer to the Fedora Art team to make a decision, since we have set them up to be the authoritative voice on precisely these kinds of matters?", opinion backed by a number of other members.

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00152.html

With the decision chain established, the Art team quickly converged[2] to a final design[3] by NicuBuculei and its usage guidelines[4] by MairinDuffy.

[2] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00199.html

[3] https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Image:Fedora_secondary_logo_drafts_nicubunu_color2.png

[4] https://fedoraproject.org/w/uploads/2/29/Fedora_secondary_logo_draft_guidelines.png

Echo Icon Theme Future

In a long mail to @fedora-art Martin Sourada exposed[1] his pland for the future of the Echo icon set "I'd like to focus on (nearly) full coverage of Desktop Live Spin, KDE Live Spin and XFCE Live Spin (others as well, but I don't have them all in memory)". He also pointed to some criticism about the set "we are a lot criticized for inconsistencies in the projection we use in echo" and talked about the various perspectives used "strictly speaking we are using 3 different types of projections and we have rules which is used where and we are pretty much consistent with that", a topic covered also on his blog[2] and proposed a simplification "But on the other side it turns out that having three main types of projections is too much for an icon set and that having two is about the right number."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00229.html

[2] http://mso-chronicles.blogspot.com/2008/10/echo-icon-theme-perspective-part-i.html

Hylke Bons, an Ubuntu developer, weighted[3] againd the isometric perspective in Echo "I'm still not a fan of the isometric view of the bigger icons, i think it causes most of the noise in the icons. Also, I do not see a need for that particular viewpoint", while Luya Tshimbalanga proposed[4] a simpler perspective for some image sizes "I remember having a discussion with Maírín about setting perspective for 24x24 and less icons. Perhaps applying that illustrated perspectivs to all categories at those sizes might help. Spherical icons will have much impact."

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00230.html

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00231.html

Sound themes

Nicu Buculei relayed[1] to @fedora-art a blog post[2] where Lennart Pottering raised a call for XDG sound themes and also expressed his concerns about how the team may have not encouraged a contributor "I am afraid we may have driven away Chris with the lack of feedback when he tried to create one" and a possible conflict with with the Desktop Team agenda "Also, with the Echo experience fresh in mind, I wonder if we create a new set only to get it called a 'charade' and 'if you think what you're doing is 'value add' that makes Fedora look better than the 'competition' you are wrong'."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00235.html

[2] http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/free-sound-themes.html

William Jon McCann replied[3] pointing to the lack of quality of the earlier theme proposal "However well intentioned Chris' effort may have been, the results are not suitable for use in a high quality desktop product. Have you actually listened to the theme that you reference here?" and likened it to the work on icons "This is the same problem that some of us have with the way the icon theme and background art work has been handled in Fedora. I personally love to see lots of energy and experimentation going on. But at the end of the day we have to be concerned about our audience and how everything integrates into a coherent product" and wallpapers "I think that the desktop wallpapers we've used by default are a good example of this".

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00246.html

Mairin Duffy felt paronized[4] "I trust that was meant with the best of intentions, so I'm sad to admit I can't help finding this somewhat patronizing, sorry" and likened the open artwork creation with the open code creation "Just as you can't follow a formula like the GNOME HIG and pop out a beautiful, usable interface, you can't follow a formula like the Fedora theme guidelines and pop out a beautiful theme. The magic inbetween that makes something good is design. I'm quite saddened by the fact that you don't seem to believe this team has or is capable of having that magic, but I suppose to relate it to coding as you did in your message, perhaps not everyone felt Linus had the magic or capability to develop the magic necessary to start a real, usable operating system."

[4] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00248.html

Paul Frields defendef[5] the art team "The Artwork team has always been open, in my experience, to criticism and suggestions about artwork. They exemplify the way Fedora teams work openly and transparently in a cooperative effort. And they've consistently turned out designs that are always solid, and often spectacular, not just for the desktop but for a variety of other uses too" and "At the end of the day, the Fedora Artwork team has been charged with the responsibility of the look and feel of Fedora. They're expected to do -- and have done -- that work in a community-friendly way, and people who want to have input into the process should do the same."

[5] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00250.html

Nicu Buculei showed[6] that open art should be developed in the same way as open software "Yes, I listened to the theme and found it not perfect. But know what? It was NOT supposed to be perfect... the 'release early, release often' mantra in FOSS is exactly that, put your work in the open as soon as possible so other can play with it, comment or contribute. How can the author improve his work without our feedback, knowing which parts are good and which suck?"

[6] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00262.html

Four F's Poster Designs

Mairin Duffy showed[1] to @fedora-art and @fedora-marketing a number of posters[2] for the new "Four F's" (freedom|friends|features|first) Fedora slogan, posters received with awe by the community,a sentiment probably described[3] best by Ian Weller: "I saw these and my mouth was gaping open. These are very, very, very, very, very, very cool! Now I want to frame them and put them in my room."

[1] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-art-list/2008-October/msg00247.html

[2] http://duffy.fedorapeople.org/collateral/fourfs/individual%20posters/

[3] https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-marketing-list/2008-October/msg00231.html